Good One Podcast

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes is a podcast about - well - jokes, and the people who tell them. Each week, a comedian will play a joke of their's and then break it down with Vulture.com Senior Editor Jesse David Fox.

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes is a podcast about - well - jokes, and the people who tell them. Each week, a comedian will play a joke of their's and then break it down with Vulture.com Senior Editor Jesse David Fox.

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes is a podcast about - well - jokes, and the people who tell them. Each week, a comedian will play a joke of their's and then break it down with Vulture.com Senior Editor Jesse David Fox.

Language:

English

Episodes

Jesse’s back in the Late Night with Seth Meyers conference room with—wait for it—Seth Meyers! While there's plenty to talk about, the conversation centers around Seth writing the Documentary Now! episode Juan Likes Rice and Chicken. The two touch on Seth's parodies from when he was Head Writer at Saturday Night Live, along with his semi-autobiographical ties to Juan and Arturo.
Also included: Seth is unable to make Jesse’s tweets any better than they already are.
Season 3 of Documentary...

Ray Romano sits down with Jesse to talk about his new Netflix special, Right Here, Around the Corner. The two go over Ray’s jokes about his son Joe, why he continues to see his family as a source of new material, and what made the Comedy Cellar the right place to tape his new special.
Also, Ray does an impression of an impression of Ray Romano.
Watch Ray’s new special on Netflix.

It’s sequel time! Sort of.
On a Good One episode from way back in the year 2018, Jesse asked Vanessa Bayer about Saturday Night Live's series of ad parodies for Totino’s pizza rolls. What started as a take on gender stereotypes in advertising evolved over the next two years into a surreal X-Files promo, and ultimately a triumphant, French romance film trailer.
Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider are the former SNL head writers behind the Totino’s Trilogy. Jesse talks to them about the...

Jesse talks to actor, comedian, writer, and friend Julie Klausner about a seemingly random joke from her Hulu series Difficult People. Recorded live at Union Hall in Brooklyn, the two talk about equal treatment of male and female genitalia in comedy, Julie’s writing process on Difficult People, and much, much, much more.
ALSO: a super secret surprise guest.
ALSO ALSO: get ready to find out if your favorite sketch comedians are dogs or cats.
Watch Difficult People on Hulu.Follow Julie on...

Jesse talks to comedian Sebastian Maniscalco about the creation of one of his most well-known jokes, “Doorbell”. Not only does Sebastian have a new Netflix special out, but at the time of the interview he was days away from headlining a weekend of stand-up shows at Madison Square Garden. Listen to how Sebastian refined his act-outs, and how nostalgia and disbelief came to shape his comedy.
Watch Sebastian’s act outs to get a full picture of "Doorbell".Check out the interior of Sebastian and...

Welcome back to Good One. We missed you dearly.
For our Season 5 premiere, comedian, actress, and improviser Nicole Byer invited Jesse over to talk about the opening jokes of her new Netflix special, Aggressively Adorable.
For more Nicole check out Comedians of the World and Nailed It! on Netflix and listen to her on What the Tuck? A RuPaul's Drag Race Podcast and Why Won't You Date Me? wherever you listen to podcasts.

With all of his standup specials, records, and multiple roles in TV and film, Sinbad has no shortage of material to dissect. But when Jesse reached out to to ask what joke Sinbad wanted to discuss on the podcast, Sinbad didn’t want to pick one. Why? Because he doesn’t write his act in the way that most other comedians do. Sinbad will build an entire routine from a fleeting thought in the moment while he’s on-stage—and it will change the course of the performance in an instant.
Jesse and...

Years before creating and starring in the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rachel Bloom wrote and performed a musical sketch about a young actress’s obsession with Space Jam, the 1996 animated and live-action crossover starring Michael Jordan and a bunch of Looney Tunes.
Jesse and Rachel talk about the compromise she made between musical theater and sketch comedy. Along the way they discuss the importance of nailing down a premise when writing, how rhyming can ruin a joke’s potential, and most...

Laurie Kilmartin is a stand-up comedian and writer for Conan. She's also cohost of the podcast The Jackie and Laurie Show along with comedian Jackie Kashian.
Laurie discusses the formation of her 2017 Conan set, finding a new muse 20-years into her career, and how to know when to inform the audience that “Domingo” is Spanish for “Sunday”.
Read Laurie’s tweet about joke transitions here.

Mike Birbiglia cemented his style of comedic storytelling in specials like Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, and Thank God For Jokes. He’s also the writer and director of Don’t Think Twice and the movie adaptation of Sleepwalk With Me. Now, his latest show, The New One, is running on Broadway.
In this episode, we’re talking about an earlier one of Mike’s jokes—his Celebrity Golf story, from the album My Secret Public Journal Live. Mike describes how he identifies moments from...

Kenan Thompson and collaborator Bryan Tucker have been working on SNL together for years. In August 2017, they debuted Kenan’s take on NBA personality Lavar Ball. It went over so well that the impression returned for three additional Weekend Updates. Jesse asks Kenan and Bryan about how they come up with their best work that spans 16 seasons of SNL.

Comedian Max Silvestri and writer Leah Beckmann have been together for seven years. They have a dog.
For years Max hosted the New York alt-comedy showcase Big Terrific, which Leah had been to a couple of times before approaching Max on the subway to say hi. Fast forward to today, when Jesse sits down with the couple to discuss what it’s like to be written about as a significant other, the vetting process for relationship jokes, and why buttholes work when assholes don’t.
Watch Max on...

Nikki Glaser asserted herself as a ruthless and talented roaster at Comedy Central's Roast of Rob Lowe in 2016, so it was no surprise that she was invited back for Bruce Willis in 2018. Nikki walks Jesse through the roast process from start to finish, explaining the massive undertaking that is writing effective insults.

Jesse and Chris Gethard discuss the transition from improviser to stand-up comedian, and then dissect the quintessential “Gethard Joke.” Chris recounts wrapping The Chris Gethard Show, his ambitious HBO special Career Suicide, and what’s problematic about applying the idea of “swim at your own risk” to live comedy.

Comedian, actress, and author Phoebe Robinson (2 Dope Queens, You Can’t Touch My Hair, Ibiza) talks Jesse through getting a swimming lesson from Julia Roberts on the Adriatic sea—what she calls one of her life’s “Non-Trash Moments” in her forthcoming book Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay. Phoebe explains her writing process, along with her love for abbreviations, typos, and mixed metaphors.

In the Season 4 premiere of Good One, Nick Kroll discusses the difference between shame and guilt and how both concepts factor into writing a show like Big Mouth, which returned October 5th for its second season on Netflix.

In the season finale of Good One, Jesse and Aparna Nancherla (Just Putting It Out There, Comedy Central's Corporate, Netflix's The Standups) discuss how depression and anxiety came to be a part of her act, how her jokes about mental health have been received over time, and the inherent stress of interacting with babies.

Jesse talks to Will about the Last Man on Earth’s final scene, the show’s journey, and what would have come next if the show hadn't been cancelled. Recorded live in Montreal at the 2018 Just for Laughs Festival.

New York based Naomi Ekperigin is quickly becoming an influential voice in modern comedy. She’s worked as a staff writer for Broad City and Great News, and was listed as one of the "20 Comedians You Should and Will Know" by Vulture.
Jesse talks to Naomi about a joke from her most recent set on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Learn how Naomi crafted her tight 5 for late night, how she writes comedy conversationally, and the application process behind booking a spot on Seth Meyers.

Reggie Watts doesn't write jokes. With nothing but a microphone and some looping pedals, he crafts one-of-a-kind musical improv comedy. So on this special episode of Good One, Reggie improvises a song in the studio and we break down his process. He explains his love for improv over scripted comedy, his passion for science and technology, and shares his experiences making music on different drugs and psychedelics.